Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Aspiring Leadership Society presents “Spirit, Mind, & Body”, a conversation with representatives from the three remaining buildings in downtown Dallas built by and for African Americans on Wednesday, February 20 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

The event, moderated by Don Baynham, will feature three prominent African American community members speaking about their memories and experiences as members, students, and users of St. Paul United Methodist Church (1873), Booker T. Washington High School (1925), and the Historic Moorland YMCA building (1930):

Dr. Robert Prince, born in 1930, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1946 and grew up in “North Dallas” near Thomas and Hall Streets. He went on to receive his medical degree and practice obstetrics and gynecology in Dallas from 1964 to 2001. Dr. Prince wrote a comprehensive history of the African American experience in Dallas and has since fought to preserve African American landmarks including Freedman’s Memorial Park and Griggs Park.

Brian J. Nickerson, Managing Director for Singing Hills Funeral Home, graduated from Dallas’ “Arts Magnet”, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 2001, before going on to study Music Theory and Business at the Musicians Institute of Technology in California and graduated from the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service. Mr. Nickerson serves as Vice President for the Alumni Association and is a BTW Advisory Board Member.

Macy Johnson Mays was a child in the late 1940s when her father, a member of St. Paul United Methodist Church since 1919, brought her to church. During that time period, she worshipped alongside well known African Americans like baseball great Ernie Banks, and recalls when other members participated in revolutionary events like the H.L. Green lunch counter sit-ins. Ms. Mays, a retired Dallas ISD educator, is a 1964 graduate of Booker T. Washington Technical High School. Ms. Mays now lives in Pleasant Grove but continues to make a Sunday trek down I-30 to attend St. Paul and is one of the church’s historians.

Moderator, Don Baynham, is the Associate Vice President of Eastfield College and has extensive knowledge of Dallas history as the Chairman of Dallas Historical Village, Vice-Chairman at Dallas County Historical Commission, and past-Chairman at Dallas Historical Society.

The event is open to the public at a cost of $10 per person; payment can be made online at www.dbdt.com/support. For more information or to RSVP email friends@dbdt.com or phone 214-871-2376 x431.